Yearly Archives: 2014

December 24, 2014. In a column that ran in the Chicago Tribune and more than a dozen other papers, Benjamin Powell, senior fellow of the Independent Institute and director of the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University, argues that President Obama's executive action on immigration will have only small, and generally positive, effects on the economic and fiscal climate. Allowing illegal immigrants to work openly and legally allows them to use their skills in the jobs and industries where they can contribute the most [...]

December 14, 2014. Dan Janison, in a Newsday column, cites FPI's estimate that the president's executive order would be good for the New York economy. The Fiscal Policy Institute estimates that out of a total 873,000 people who are undocumented in New York, 258,000 are "potentially eligible" for deferred action under Obama's new executive order, unveiled last month. ....For his part, David Dyssegard Kallick of the Fiscal Policy Institute said of immigrants affected: "If they can act more freely in the economy, it is going [...]

December 1, 2014. In a finding with important implications for President Obama's executive order on immigration, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports on a Pew Center study showing that the level of unauthorized immigration has been flat since 2009. David Dyssegaard Kallick, director of immigration research for the Fiscal Policy Institute, a New York nonprofit that examines the role of immigrants in New York state and beyond, said: "It adds up to what I think is now established as a pretty clear trend, if you can call [...]

November 24, 2014. An opinion piece in Sys-Con Media explains why immigrants give special thanks around Thanksgiving: With our personal calendars filled with holidays that range from religious observances to children's birthdays there is only one day of the year that we can all sit down together as one large, diverse family of Americans and celebrate who we are, where we came from and why this remains an extraordinary country of opportunity. Welcome Thanksgiving. ...This author came to the United States from Iran in 1969. I had no grand plan. [...]

November 21, 2014. Fox Business News reports on the economic impacts of the president's immigration action, quoting the Fiscal Policy Institute: On economic impact: At the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute , Director of Immigration Law and Policy Research Daniel Costa argued that the plan would actually be good for low-wage U.S. workers and small businesses. “Businesses should like it. Those who are paying minimum wage won’t have to compete with those paying less than minimum wage, or who are not paying overtime to unauthorized workers,” [...]

November 21, 2014. The Arizona Republic ran a story about President Obama's administrative action on immigration that cites the Fiscal Policy Institute's work, as well as our partners at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy:   Undocumented immigrants who qualify for President Barack Obama's executive action, announced Thursday, will pay far more in new taxes than they will gain in credits, providing a significant boost to state and federal coffers, tax researchers predicted Friday. Legalizing millions of workers also will tend to push up [...]

November 20, 2014. In Politico, a story about the economic and fiscal impacts of President Obama's executive action on immigration: Obama’s new immigration order, which will shield about 5 million undocumented workers from deportation, will have tax implications that are sure to irk Republicans who are already calling foul on his bid to bypass Congress to ease immigration laws. That’s because most of that group of 5 million will be adults with U.S.-born children, meaning they’ll theoretically be able to claim up to $1,000 per [...]

November 20, 2014. As President Obama puts immigration back on the front burner of the national debate, a story in Bloomberg Business Week focuses on the important role immigrants are playing in the Detroit economy, using some data from a Fiscal Policy Institute report to make the case: The 18th-largest U.S. city ranks 135th in the number of foreign-born residents, said Steve Tobocman, director of Global Detroit, a nonprofit agency that promotes legal immigration as an economic catalyst. Still, in 2007 they accounted for 11 [...]